U.S. Army’s logistics unit changes name

U.S. Army’s logistics unit changes name    The U.S. Army’s 30-year-old surface transportation logistics unit will have a new name starting Jan. 1 to clarify its mission in modern warfare.
   The Alexandria-based Military Traffic Management Command, better known to the shipping industry as MTMC, has been renamed the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, or SDDC.
   The new name follows closely with the agency’s parent command name change from the Transportation Command to the Defense Department’s Joint Distribution Process Owner.
   “Over time, we have literally outgrown our name,” said Maj. Gen. Ann Dunwoody, commanding general of the SDDC in a statement.
   “Traffic management will continue to be a key component of what we do, but it is only one of the tools in our arsenal,” she added. “Our value to the war fighter resides in our ability to deliver capability and substance on time and ensure that we can provide timely, accurate in-transit visibility and total asset visibility of all surface equipment and supplies at all times.”
   To commemorate the name change, Gen. John Handy, commander of the Joint Distribution Process Owner, will officiate a formal ceremony Jan. 29 at the SDDC Operations Center in Fort Eustis, Va.
   This is not the first time the agency has changed its name. It started in 1965 as the Military Traffic Management and Terminal Service. The change to MTMC came in 1974 to mark the agency’s transition to the post-Vietnam era.